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Forest fires near the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in Chernobyl have seen radiation spike to 16 times its normal levels.

Yegor Firsov, head of Ukraine’s state ecological inspection service, shared a video on Facebook on Sunday of a Geiger counter showing how the radiation at the centre of the fires is far higher than normal.

He explained: “There is bad news – radiation is above normal in the fire’s centre.”

Yegor went on to explain that the fires had spread to about 100 hectares (250 acres) of forest.

They broke out on Saturday and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev has already mobilised two planes, a helicopter and around 100 firefighters to fight the blaze.

A forest fire in the contaminated forest surrounding the Chernobyl power plant (Image: GETTY)